Charlie Parker famous quotes

05-16-2025

Don't play the saxophone. Let it play you.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #Play #Saxophone
You've got to learn your instrument. Then, you practice, practice, practice. And then, when you finally get up there on the bandstand, forget all that and just wail.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #Faith #Practice
Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn. They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #Art #Men
Don't be afraid, just play the music.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #Play
Master your instrument. Master the music. And then forget all that bullshit and just play.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #Play #Bullshit
If you don't live it, it won't come out your horn.
-- Charlie Parker

#Art #Reality #Horny
Once I could play what I heard inside me, that's when I was born.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #Play #Born
I realized by using the high notes of the chords as a melodic line, and by the right harmonic progression, I could play what I heard inside me. That's when I was born.
-- Charlie Parker

#Play #Lines #Progression
When I first heard music, I thought it should be very clean, very precise. Something that people could understand, something that was beautiful.
-- Charlie Parker

#Beautiful #People #Firsts
You've got to learn your instrument.
-- Charlie Parker

#Jazz #Instruments
I kept thinking there's bound to be something else? I could hear it sometimes, but I couldn't play it.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #Thinking #Play
Any musician who says he is playing better either on tea, the needle, or when he is juiced, is a plain, straight liar. When I get too much to drink, I can't even finger well, let alone play decent ideas. ... You can miss the most important years of your life, the years of possible creation.
-- Charlie Parker

#Liars #Years #Play
Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music Is
Man, there's no boundary line to art!
-- Charlie Parker

#Art #Men #Lines
I'm very glad to have met you. I like your playing very much.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #I Like You #Mets
I don't care who likes it or buys it. Because if you use that criterion, Mozart would never have written Don Giovanni, Charlie Parker would have never played anything but swing music.
-- Charlie Parker

#Swings #Use #Care
I'd been getting bored with the stereotyped changes (harmonies) that were being used all the time. ... I found that by using the higher intervals of a chord as a melody line and backing them with appropriately related changes I could play the thing I'd been hearing. I came alive.
-- Charlie Parker

#Play #Bored #Alive
Some guys said 'Here's bop!' Wham! They said, 'Here's something we can make money on!' Wham! 'Here's a comedian!' Wham! Here's a guy who talks funny talk!'
-- Charlie Parker

#Guy #Comedian #Bops
Bop is no love-child of jazz.
-- Charlie Parker

#Children #Bops #Jazz
Learn the changes, then forget them.
-- Charlie Parker

#Forget
I can play all I know in eight bars.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #Eight #Play
They teach you there's a boundary line to music. But, man, there's no boundary line to art.
-- Charlie Parker

#Music #Art #Men

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